Friday, June 11, 2010

TN Republicans support mountaintop removal mining - an eco disaster

An attempt to revive a bill that would ban "mountaintop removal" coal mining in Tennessee failed in the state Senate today. The recall motion by Sen. Andy Berke, a Chattanooga Democrat, failed by a 12-14 vote that fell mostly along party lines.The bill would have prohibited surface coal mining more than 2,000 feet above sea level.

Mountaintop removal is devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans ... but that's OK with Republicans. Tennessee already allows mountaintop mining at Zeb Mountain in Pioneer, where pollution is showing up in water supplies.

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What's a "loose canon"?
Differing from a "loose cannon" which means - an irresponsible or reckless person, a "loose canon" refers to a loose set of rules, in this case ... my rules. Unlike many conservative bloggers that stifle debate and delete comments, I don't!

Conservatism: clinical tendencies

A study funded by the US Government's National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as: a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity". (see report)----------A study by NYU and UCLA published in the Journal Nature Neuroscience showsliberals have a greater cognitive ability to problem solve and cope with changing conditions than conservativeswho are more "persistent and structured" and are more reliant on "habitual responses." From the study:

Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain associated with understanding complexity - the anterior cingulate cortex, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section related to processing fear - the right amygdala.